Federal authorities in Arizona are investigating whether four illegal immigrants arrested Monday are the same suspects who recently bolted from New York City after being charged with jumping a pair of cops.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took a group of people into custody at a Greyhound bus station in Phoenix, according to law enforcement sources who spoke with the New York Post and Fox News.
The four suspects in question — Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19; Darwin Andres Gomez, 19; Wilson Juarez, 21; and Yorman Reveron, 24 — were charged with assaulting two police officers during a Jan. 27 brawl near Times Square.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said the suspects were released without bail following their arraignments.
The Post previously reported that law enforcement believed the migrants gave bogus names to a church-affiliated nonprofit that helps move people out of the Big Apple.
The newspaper also reported that police believe these same migrants are involved in a theft ring where they steal phones and use the victims’ bank account to make lavish purchases in their home country.
“They’re buying cars back in Ecuador and Venezuela,” the police source told the Post. “They’re putting pools in their homes there. All this money is going back and forth. That’s why the larcenies are going out of control. It’s unbelievable what they’re doing.”
The migrants were trying to get to California so they could reenter Mexico and dodge prosecution, CNN reported.
Former NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller, the network’s law enforcement analyst, said the four migrants have arrest records that include felony theft and robbery offenses.
Mr. Miller also reported that detectives said the accused thieves frequent Florida, but they don’t try to replicate their theft ring in the Sunshine State “because there you go to jail.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has advocated for deporting the suspects once they’re captured.
“Get them all and send them back,” Ms. Hochul said last week. “You don’t touch our police officers. You don’t touch anyone.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.